Southern Avenger

John McCain and the Militarist Mentality

Here's some perceptive and interesting thoughts on how John McCain thinks from The Atlantic's Matthew Yglesias:

"For McCain, a certain culture of honor, militarism, and nationalism are their own reward. The military is to be celebrated and supported not for what it does but for what it is. Thus, a given military venture doesn't need to have a real purpose or be 'worth it' in any particular sense. It is what it is, and what we need to do is keep on doing it for as long as 'it' takes and it doesn't matter if 'it' is pointless or futile or even if 'it' isn't anything in particular at all. The war is its own rationale."